FD24P00235 - [2025] EWHC 952 (Fam)

The father is a naturalised American citizen of Bolivian origin. He became a US citizen in 2012. The father asserts that the mother is a Bangladeshi national. The mother denies she is a Bangladeshi national and states that she was born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (hereafter “UAE”), does not have Bangladeshi nationality and has never been to Bangladesh.

The bundle contains a copy of a Bangladeshi passport in the mother’s name. The mother disputes the authenticity of this Bangladeshi passport. However, in oral evidence the mother confirmed that the photograph in the passport is of her. The passport, issued by the Bangladeshi Consulate in Dubai on 27 May 2006 and renewed by that Consulate until 31 December 2015, states the mother’s date of birth as 9 November 1982 which, for reasons I have given, I am satisfied is correct. In addition, the mother’s denial of the Bangladeshi passport must be viewed in the context of her account with respect to her nationality having changed over time such as to reduce her credibility on this issue.

In the 911 call made by the mother on 24 June 2020 at 9.48am the mother stated that “I used to have a passport from my country”, although she did not specify which country. In the Schedule of Findings, the mother contends that when she was in Bolivia her passport (of which no details are given) was taken from her as an aspect of the father’s coercive and controlling behaviour. In the report of the Colorado Division of Child Welfare of the same date, the mother is recorded as being “from Lebanon”. In her Initial Contact Asylum Registration Questionnaire dated 5 December 2020 and her Asylum Support Application dated 8 December 2020 the mother claimed never to have had another nationality. In answer to the question “What is your race/ethnicity/tribal group?” during her initial asylum interview, the mother replied “A mix of Middle Eastern and Asian”.

In these proceedings, the mother has contended that the father arranged a Bolivian passport for her when they arrived in that jurisdiction after they met and she was subsequently “forced” to travel on that passport when the parties relocated to the United States. With respect to how she was able to enter Bolivia when she arrived in that country with the father, in the proceedings before Ms Khalique KC the mother claimed to have used a travel document enabling her to travel across the UAE if accompanied by an adult. The mother made no mention of a forged Bolivian passport or a travel document enabling her to travel across the UAE if accompanied by an adult to UK Border Force Officials when she entered this jurisdiction.

The father denies that the mother ever had a Bolivian passport obtained for her. The father says that when the parents first met in London, the mother had travelled to the United Kingdom from Dubai on her Bangladeshi passport. The father contends that the mother thereafter travelled to Bolivia using her Bangladeshi passport. The father further contends that in 2012 he applied for a spousal visa for the mother at the US Embassy in Bolivia, presenting her birth certificate from Dubai and her Bangladeshi passport to which the visa could be attached to enable the mother to enter the United States. The paternal grandmother corroborated this account. The father states that thereafter the mother travelled to the US from Bolivia using her Bangladeshi passport and the US visa stamped in it. The copy of the Bangladeshi passport contained in the bundle is not a complete copy and there is no copy of the US visa. The mother conceded in an interview with the District Attorney on 10 August 2020 that she had a visa for the United States obtained whilst she was in Bolivia, but claimed it was a tourist visa that she herself obtained in La Paz.

In the foregoing circumstances, I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the mother is a Bangladeshi national with a US spousal visa. In circumstances where it would not have been possible for the mother to travel to London, Bolivia and the US without a passport, it is more likely than not that the Bangladeshi passport covering the period of these journeys, and containing the mother’s photograph and date of birth, is her passport. I reject the allegation that the mother was forced by the father to obtain a Bolivian passport.